August 27, 2010

Confusion Kumbaya

In a country increasingly divided between right and left, Fox and MS-NBC, climate-change deniers and Prius-drivers, it's encouraging when an issue comes along that we can all agree on.

Health care reform is a prime example. And what we can agree on about health care reform is this: it is really, really confusing.

Especially for people who don't spend their professional (or personal) lives combing through federal policy reports or fashioning wall-sized flow-charts to model the gazillion ways an individual can be insured or uninsured under the current healthcare system.

(Incidentally, if you have a chart like that, please let us know.)

But national unity in confusion isn't actually all that great. Especially when it's our clients and patients we're talking about.

So the good folks at the California Primary Care Association in Sacramento put together an FAQ on healthcare reform that's targeted at front-line health center staff and providers so they'll be equipped to answer patient questions.

The guide's still in "we need feedback on this" draft format, and so here's where you come in, faithful reader:

Click here to see the FAQ, and if you have a chance, leave a comment or drop us a line to let us know what you think. Are we hitting all the right issues? Are they the questions that patients in your health centers or your County clinics are asking? Are the explanations complete? Do we use language that normal people can understand?

We'd be stoked to get your thoughts and edits on this document. The goal, ultimately, is to help unify the public, not in resigned confusion, but in head-over-heels-excited, can't-wait-to-sign-myself-and-my-family-up-for-low-cost-insurance comprehension.